A Heart Worth Breaking
by McShmickley
Summary: He never meant anything to anyone, and he never would again. Set during the later chapters of Inkheart.


**ANs: I demand that thou listen to "How You Remind Me" by Nickelback while reading this, here's the link: youtu .be /6abb 33Jiq 1A?t=1m18s (minus the spaces, of course.) It'll start right at the chorus, which is from is from Basta's POV in this story.**

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Basta rested his forehead against the bars that held him captive. The cold metal felt relieving against his burning face, and offered a sense of security that at least _something_ around him was still real. Fear blurred his vision of reality, and he drew a sharp breath. He swore he could feel them - the White Women. His time was soon coming, he was sure of it. They had come to take their long-lost child away, to kill him a thousand times over for his wicked service to Capricorn. Their endless torment had already begun; he felt their ghostly fingers freeze holes in the walls of boiling stone he had spent all his life crafting about himself to keep hurt and harm at bay. Only one had ever been allowed to live inside those walls with him, a man. Capricorn.

The man who had made him had crushed him, and Basta mournfully admitted to himself that it had been his own fault. He had let Capricorn consume him. His heart broke with a sickening crack, a mocking sound that echoed through his aching head. Why had he been so foolish as to serve something so delicate up to someone so cruel? Capricorn had been like a father to him, and Basta loved him as if he never had another. But the man shunned him, threw him aside like a piece of worthless garbage. It had happened once before. _Roxane_. Hadn't Basta known since then that eventually it would happen again? The circumstances were different, but the concept remained the same - he meant nothing to those that were the world to him.

Against whatever was left of his will, they started to come - tears. He hated tears, hated the stinging and swelling they left in the eyes and the wretched sounds that came with them. They served him no purpose except to remind him that he was just as useless and pathetic as his master believed. Cockerell had been the bearer of bad news, and more than happily carried out his duty with a smug air, constantly noting that now he was the new "favorite," and how dreafully disappointed Capricorn was with Basta's folly. He rubbed his eyes dry and for a moment they remained that way, but a fresh wave flowed down his face as the image of Capricorn's disdaiful face haunted his mind.

The broken shards of his heart pierced him from the inside, carving painful scars into him that would never heal, scars that would fervently burn every time he dared to touch them. The tears poured out harder, his emotions liquified, slowly emptying themselves from him. He knew he would feel nothing after the episode had finished.

He sniveled and let out a hoarse sob. At the sound, the old book-bag woman turned in her shared cell to look at him, he tightened his grip on the bars and lowered his head. What business did she have in this? Had she ever sworn complete loyalty to someone, complete and utter loyalty unto death, and been sentenced to die by the very person she'd promised her soul to? He knew perfectly well the answer was no. Neither she nor Resa could share his pain, though it was comforting to know that he wasn't alone with the spirits and White Women floating about. He glared wet daggers at the chattering prisoners through his reddened eyes. How could they play "cheerful reunion" with each other when creatures were skulking in the dark all around them, just out of sight? He wanted to strangle them out of fury for their own stupidity. Didn't they know voices attract the monsters? They could find you if they could hear you, follow the sounds you made. It would only be a matter of time before they summoned the spirit of the coffined man behind him, and Basta would be dead by him long before anyone outside could do anything about it.

Not that he expected anyone to.

He wiped his eyes. His tears ran dry some time ago, and as he predicted, he felt nothing any longer. And never again in his short time left would he try to, for the man who broke him taught him a valuable lesson.

_Never let anyone in._

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**A special round of thanks to Charivari for serving as the motivation for getting this up, to my big sister Sparky for editing, and also to Dawn96 for inspiring me. :3**


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